Restless Hands' Project - 5

It's been ages since I've done my Restless Hands' Project story. Mostly because I was outside of the US and my house for a year and because all I could do in Tbilisi with my hands was taking care of some of the plants I bought or propagated.

Years ago, I bought two large 65-gallon blue drum barrels and set up a rain water collection system in the backyard of my house in Atlanta, Ga. I wrote about it here. They have served me really well, and even my bad tenants couldn't kill or break them. Well, they did damage one of the pipes and seals but those are easily replaceable.

When Atlanta is in drought in high summer, those barrels are precious as they have enough water for my garden. They also save me a lot of money on the water bill. And I don't have to use good drinking water for the plants anymore, the rain water is better for them in any case.

It has been my dream to set up a nicer, more sophisticated rain barrel in the front yard because when it gets really hot in Atlanta in July and August the water from the two barrels runs out quickly and because it will be easier not to carry the water from the backyard to the front to water my flowers and berry bushes.

I was delaying it for a long time but when I got back from Tbilisi I just decided this was as good time as any because the prices for the everything are going up. I've researched the barrels and settled on this one:

I liked it for its look and design, as well as the fact that it has a beautiful black base and a brass spigot (it's much better than the flimsy plastic spigots most other barrels come with).

The only thing I didn't like about this barrel was that it collects the rain water from the top, which means that you'd have to cut off a part of your gutter so that it delivers the water into the screened part on the top. I didn't like that because I'd have to install the barrel directly under the gutter, which would make it highly visible. I wanted it to sit to the side from the gutter right behind my azalea hedge.

I've decided that I'd bypass that by getting the EarthMinded gutter diverter kit like I did for my previous barrels. It is designed in such a way that when the barrel is full the water goes back into the gutter and you don't have to deal with the issue of the water overflowing from the barrels' top.

My new barrel arrived right before the big rain we were supposed to get and I was happy because I was sure I'd be able to set it up easily. Well, my drill for some reason refused to handle the thick industrial plastic, unable to drill the hole for the diverter pipe as easily as I did it with the blue drums.

I had to recharge the drill's battery a couple of times to get it to full power but I finally did it. After I drilled the whole in the gutter and installed the diverter pipe, the rain started about 9 pm. I was happy I managed to set everything up and went to bed.

You can imagine my disappointment the next morning when I went to check on the barrel and it hardly had any water in it! I panicked and thought that either I installed it incorrectly or the new design in the diverter didn't work as well as the old one.

And then I checked the spigot and it was open all the way, so the rain water went straight through the barrel. Silly me, didn't check the factory settings. Luckily, there was more rain the next day and the barrel filled up quickly.

Today, I was able to use the water from my new barrel for the first time. I was as happy as I could be, and I'm glad we'll have more rain coming in the next ten days as I need a lot of water for the new grass I sodded around my magnolia tree.

What do you think of my new barrel? Handsome, isn't it?